**Posted for Bryce**
The east wind thats been blowing this week has kept me out of the stand. With the rut kicking in, I feared that if the wind didn't change soon I'd miss my opportunity. Well it finally happened, and friday morning my buddies and I headed up to a beautiful, calm, west wind. Right at first light I spot a buck off to my left, then another, Much bigger buck behind him. They turn right and head behind me to my buddies stand. A few minutes later, arrow flies, deer explode behind me in two directions. After the dust settles, he's got a nice fat forkie down. So the work began and we spent the rest of the morning hauling his deer out and back to town.
I race home, jump in the shower, choke down as much chicken and dumplings as I can in 10 minutes, and head out solo for the evening hunt. By the time i get to the trail head I realize its getting late quick and I'm only going to have about an hour and a half of legal light once I get to my stand.
So I finally get all setup in my tree and realize the wind has shifted a little and is blowing slighlty in the direction I expect the deer to come from. I hit the doe bleet one time and immediately hear what sounds light crunching in the leaf litter to my left. I wait about 5 minutes, hit the can one time, and hear the crunching again. this goes on for about 20-30 minutes.
I realized by now that it was a deer pacing around, picking up a little of my wind, and not wanting to come in. I stayed focused and kept letting a single doe bleet out every 10 minutes or so. The deer slowly began making its way around behind me in the leaf litter and I had yet to see any part of it to tell what it was.
After about 45 minutes of this little battle of will power between me and this deer, I reach for my doe can, because it was time to hit it again, and as I look down past my hand that I'm carefully placing on my hanging can, I see the deer pop out of the thicket and onto the game trail. Its a Buck! and he's going to walk right under my stand.
He puts his nose to the ground and begins to follow the estrus smell directly under me. I wait till he is about 8 yds past me and draw my bow. I knew he'd hear this in the dead calm and stop so I had to be careful not to draw too early.
It was picture perfect. He stopped, turned slightly, and raised his head straight up, staring right through my skull.
As we locked eyes, I carefully took aim at the tricky downward quartering angle, and squeezed. The arrow entered above the shoulder and the buck exploded! He ran straight into a down oak tree, scrambled over it, and, like a thoroughbred in deep sand, scrambled another 20 yards and piled up to my left.
As quickly as it began, it was over, and thats when the reality set in. I realized this aint no little doe, or average forkie. This guy probably weighs 170 lbs on the hoof and I got a long was to go with him. So I gut him, and drag him about 500 yds to a hiking trail.
And then, as if sent by the angels, I spot a head lamp.
As it gets closer, I look down at my trophy, and immediately feel the protectiveness of a mountain lion over its kill. Im ready to defend this thing with my life believing that this person is only out in the dark woods searching for abandoned deer carcasses to loot and plunder ;D. Well, fortunately for him (and me), It turns out the headlamp walking my way belonged to Breacher!
I have never met Nick until this moment, and I have to say, he is an Awesome Man!
He offered to help me break the deer down, and pack it back to my truck. I Owe you Big Time Bro!!
He also took some great pictures for me. Enjoy.
Hes over 18" wide and roughly 93" gross.
The east wind thats been blowing this week has kept me out of the stand. With the rut kicking in, I feared that if the wind didn't change soon I'd miss my opportunity. Well it finally happened, and friday morning my buddies and I headed up to a beautiful, calm, west wind. Right at first light I spot a buck off to my left, then another, Much bigger buck behind him. They turn right and head behind me to my buddies stand. A few minutes later, arrow flies, deer explode behind me in two directions. After the dust settles, he's got a nice fat forkie down. So the work began and we spent the rest of the morning hauling his deer out and back to town.
I race home, jump in the shower, choke down as much chicken and dumplings as I can in 10 minutes, and head out solo for the evening hunt. By the time i get to the trail head I realize its getting late quick and I'm only going to have about an hour and a half of legal light once I get to my stand.
So I finally get all setup in my tree and realize the wind has shifted a little and is blowing slighlty in the direction I expect the deer to come from. I hit the doe bleet one time and immediately hear what sounds light crunching in the leaf litter to my left. I wait about 5 minutes, hit the can one time, and hear the crunching again. this goes on for about 20-30 minutes.
I realized by now that it was a deer pacing around, picking up a little of my wind, and not wanting to come in. I stayed focused and kept letting a single doe bleet out every 10 minutes or so. The deer slowly began making its way around behind me in the leaf litter and I had yet to see any part of it to tell what it was.
After about 45 minutes of this little battle of will power between me and this deer, I reach for my doe can, because it was time to hit it again, and as I look down past my hand that I'm carefully placing on my hanging can, I see the deer pop out of the thicket and onto the game trail. Its a Buck! and he's going to walk right under my stand.
He puts his nose to the ground and begins to follow the estrus smell directly under me. I wait till he is about 8 yds past me and draw my bow. I knew he'd hear this in the dead calm and stop so I had to be careful not to draw too early.
It was picture perfect. He stopped, turned slightly, and raised his head straight up, staring right through my skull.
As we locked eyes, I carefully took aim at the tricky downward quartering angle, and squeezed. The arrow entered above the shoulder and the buck exploded! He ran straight into a down oak tree, scrambled over it, and, like a thoroughbred in deep sand, scrambled another 20 yards and piled up to my left.
As quickly as it began, it was over, and thats when the reality set in. I realized this aint no little doe, or average forkie. This guy probably weighs 170 lbs on the hoof and I got a long was to go with him. So I gut him, and drag him about 500 yds to a hiking trail.
And then, as if sent by the angels, I spot a head lamp.
As it gets closer, I look down at my trophy, and immediately feel the protectiveness of a mountain lion over its kill. Im ready to defend this thing with my life believing that this person is only out in the dark woods searching for abandoned deer carcasses to loot and plunder ;D. Well, fortunately for him (and me), It turns out the headlamp walking my way belonged to Breacher!
I have never met Nick until this moment, and I have to say, he is an Awesome Man!
He offered to help me break the deer down, and pack it back to my truck. I Owe you Big Time Bro!!
He also took some great pictures for me. Enjoy.
Hes over 18" wide and roughly 93" gross.
Do you have any pictures that weren't compressed?
